Metamorphoses, Book 10

Book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the hexameter poem of transformations he had completed by AD 8, is largely given over to the songs of Orpheus. Having lost Eurydice for a second time, Orpheus withdraws to the mountains of Thrace and sings of gods who loved boys and of girls punished for unlawful passion. Orpheus' descent to the underworld and the story of Pygmalion are in the course.

Trees gather to hear Orpheus, among them the cypress, once the boy Cyparissus, who died of grief after killing his pet stag. Orpheus sings of Jupiter carrying off Ganymede, and of Hyacinthus, killed by Apollo's discus and turned into the flower that bears his name; then of the Cerastae of Cyprus, turned into bulls by Venus for their human sacrifices. The longest song tells of Myrrha, who falls in love with her father Cinyras, comes to his bed in the dark, and, when discovered, is turned into the myrrh tree, from which her son Adonis is born. Venus falls in love with Adonis and, to warn him against dangerous animals, tells him the story of Atalanta, who raced her suitors and was beaten by Hippomenes with the help of three golden apples; when the lovers forgot to thank Venus, she had them turned into lions. Adonis ignores the warning, is killed by a boar, and Venus turns his blood into the anemone.

Myrrha's story is one of Ovid's most daring explorations of desire and guilt, and the race of Atalanta is a brilliantly told piece of narrative. The Latin is elegant and accessible.